9

English
Quarter 2 – Module 4:
Make Connection Between Texts
to Particular Social Issues
English – Grade 9
Alternative Delivery Mode
Quarter 2 – Module 4: Make Connection between Texts to Particular Social Issues
First Edition, 2020

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Published by the Department of Education, SDO Nueva Ecija

Schools Division Superintendent: Jessie D. Ferrer, CESO V
OIC-Assistant Schools Division Superintendent: Mina Gracia L. Acosta, PhD, CESO VI
Ronilo E. Hilario

Development Team of the Module

Writer: Norlee Faye C. Arcangel

Editor: Cristina L. Pagba
Reviewer: Maria Winnie Jennifer O. Matutino, PhD
Illustrator: Norlee Faye C. Arcangel
Layout Artist: Catherine M. Corcotchea
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Ma. Checilia S. Bagsic, PhD
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Eleanor A. Manibog, PhD

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 What I Need to Know

This module was designed and written for the learners. After going
through this module,

the learner is expected to:

1. Make connections between texts to particular social issues, concerns,
or dispositions in real life;
2. Distinguish the features present in poetry; (EN9WC-IId-10)
3. Organize information in various ways (outlining, graphic,
representation, etc.) (ENRC-IIi-2.15)

What I Know

Scrutinize and Reflect!

Look at the picture closely then write at least three or more
phrases/sentences to describe its message.

1._________________________________________________________________________
2._________________________________________________________________________
3._________________________________________________________________________

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 Lesson
Make Connections between Texts
1 to Particular Social Issues

Literature is one of the best ways to address social issues. Even a text
written in a hundred or thousand years still applies the issues of today’s
generation.

What’s In

Word Search
Find and circle all the words on the list. Search up, down, forward,
backward and diagonal. After encircling all the words try to find their meaning
in the dictionary or Google search.

O C L I M A T E C H A N G E N
V P X A G B P I T R W Q S F O Word List
E O P I U Q N R T E Y A L G I
Oppression
R L O R E R N O E C A U S H S
Injustice
P K V F E A O A I I A E F K S
Discrimination
O E E A Y S C E N T J Y V B E
Poverty
P J R N O W S R L S C T Y C R
Rights
U G T Y E Q B I A U A I L X P Addiction
L F Y A X A A C O J B L D Z E Depression
A D C T O I P F G N U A K D D Climate Change
T S E A W E A F A I H U F C A Overpopulation
I Z L K H F A E D R G Q R B V Equality
O A E S D S T H G I R E T I G
N X C V B N M K L O P H D G O
N O I T A N I M I R C S I D E

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 What’s New

Edwin Markham’s poem, “The Man with the Hoe” was inspired by Jean-
Francois Millet’s famous painting which shows a peasant who appears so
exhausted, holding his hoe while looking at the ground he tilled.

Let’s find out how the poem connects to the social issues today.

The Man with the Hoe

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans

Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes.
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?

Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave

To have dominion over sea and land;
To trace the stars and search the heavens for power;
To feel the passion of Eternity?
Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns
And marked their ways upon the ancient deep?
Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf
There is no shape more terrible than this —
More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed —
More filled with signs and portents for the soul —
More fraught with menace to the universe.

What gulfs between him and the seraphim!

Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?
What the long reaches of the peaks of song,
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose?

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 Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;
Time's tragedy is in the aching stoop;
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed,
Plundered, profaned, and disinherited,
Cries protest to the Powers that made the world.
A protest that is also a prophecy.

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,

Is this the handiwork you give to God,
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?
How will you ever straighten up this shape;
Touch it again with immortality;
Give back the upward looking and the light;
Rebuild in it the music and the dream,
Make right the immemorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands

How will the Future reckon with this Man?
How answer his brute question in that hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores?
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings —
With those who shaped him to the thing he is —
When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world.
After the silence of the centuries?

Process Questions:

1. What is the image of the man with the hoe?

2. What does the bent body of the man with the hoe signify?
3. How does the society treat them?
4. What are the different social issues which arise in the poem?

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 What is It

Social issues and literature cannot be separated. Literature mirrors

individual life in the society; its values, practices, traditions, issues or
problems. Some literary works help us to realize the things that we should be
proud of and also the things that we need to change positively.

So here are some social issues the world is facing from then until today
that we can also find in the literary texts written before:

1. Poverty – means when people or a community cannot support their

basic needs (e.g. Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of
Paraguay by Susan Hood)

2. Climate Change – long term change in weather due to natural,

geological and man-made actions. (e.g. For The Snake of Power by
Brenda Cooper)

3. Violation of Human Rights – it is when the state fails to do its

obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the rights.
4.
Discrimination – prejudicial action toward a group of people,
race or gender (e.g. Another Country by James Baldwin)

Social injustice – something unjust actions are done in society

(e.g. Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver)

Bullying – a form of behavior which someone repeatedly causes

another person discomfort or injury (e.g. Cyberbullying, by Lauri
S. Freidman)

Oppression – an act of subjecting to cruel restraints (e.g. Night

by Elie Wiesel

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Literary Devices Review

ALLITERATION CONSONANCE HYPERBOLE PERSONIFICATION SYMBOLISM

Repetition of Repetition of Exaggerated Human The use of

same initial consonant statements characteristics are symbols to
consonant sounds within not meant to attributed to signify ideas
sounds in sentences be taken nonhuman things by giving
successive or literally symbolic
closely Ex. Shelley Ex. Once there was meanings
associated sells shells by Ex. I’ll love a tree, and she different from
syllables within the seash. you dear. I’ll loved the little boy. literal
a group of love you. (The Giving Tree by meanings
words Shel Silverstein)
Till China Ex. All the
Ex. Whisper and Africa world’s a
words of meet. stage, and
wisdom, let it women merely
be.(from ‘Let it players.
Be’ by the
Beatles)

(Source: www.literarydevices.com)

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 What’s More

Independent Activity 1

World of Words
Using the graphic organizer below, write all the social issues shown in
the poem, “The Man with the Hoe” on a separate sheet of paper.

Social Issues
in the Poem

Independent Assessment 2
Given the literary devices used in the poem, “The Man with the Hoe”,
write all the examples of the literary device together with the line where it
came from on a separate sheet of paper.

Literary Devices Lines from the poem

Personification e.g. line 19: more tongued with
the censure of the world’s blind
greed
Hyperbole e.g. line 13: trace the stars

Symbolism e.g. Bowed – Submission

Alliteration e.g Line 2: his-hoe, gazes-ground

Consonance e.g Line 5: made, dead, despair

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Independent Activity 3

Easy Essay
Make a 5-sentence essay or more about the question below. Write your
answers on a separate sheet of paper. A rubric will be given for your essay.

Is the message of the poem still relevant today? Why do you think so?

RUBRIC FOR ESSAY

5points 4points 3points

Content The information The information is The information

is well explained. not fully is not clearly
explained. stated.
Organization Uses clear and Uses clear Uses clear
consistent organizational organizational
organizational strategy with strategy with
strategy. occasional little
inconsistencies. inconsistency.
Use of language Wise use of Wise use of Not wise use of
language and no language and a language and a
grammatical number of lot of
error. grammatical grammatical
errors. errors.

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 What I Have Learned

Identify the type of social issues mentioned in the given situations.

Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.

CLIMATE CHANGE DISCRIMINATION

BULLYING
POVERTY OPPRESSION

________1. John works for a construction company. His co-workers found out
he was a gay and started calling him “Jenny”.

________2. Sam is a new student at your school, from the start of the school
year until today some of your classmates are destroying his things and some
have been laughing behind his back.

________3. Amanda was a hard-working student but there are times that she
was not able to come to school to help earn money for her family.

________4. Minda has been working for a year and a half as an OFW in the
Middle East, since then she was only able to send money thrice to her family
because her employer was not giving the exact salary written in the contract
and sometimes beating her causes some bruises.

_________5. Rob was amazed by his grandfather’s story, that during their time
the forests are rich in plants and animals, waters are fresh from the well,
temperature is good for everyone to make their own food out of their own labor
and people are living peacefully. Now, all Rob can hear in the news are the
extreme weather conditions, floods, typhoons, earthquake and many other
calamities that affect human lives.

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 What I Can Do

Issues, Issues Everywhere, Who Cares?

One of the businessmen in your barangay together with the government

officials wanted the rice field, which is the basic or primary source of income
of the people in the community to be converted into industrial buildings. Most
of the members of the community did not agree and they insisted that they
don’t need rice fields because one can get a decent job and people can import
rice anyways.
Pretend to be the people mentioned below and give your reaction on the
situation.

Businessman:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
________
Government Official :
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
________
Farmer:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_________
Student:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
__________
Ordinary citizen (not involve in farming):
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_________

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 Assessment

Name two poems/stories/songs you have read or watched or listened

to before. Then, fill out the information needed in the table on a separate sheet
of paper.

Title No. 1:

Social Issue/s Recommended Solution

Title No. 2:

Social Issue/s Recommended Solution

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 Additional Activities

Creative Poster

Create a poster of a modern, “The Man with the Hoe”. It can be digital
or traditional posters. Please be guided by the following criteria.

Originality 25%
Presentation 25%
Relevance to the theme 25%
Artistic Composition 25%
100%

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What's in
What’s More
-POVERTY What I have learned
Discrimination
-OPPRESSION Bullying
Poverty
-INJUSTICE Oppression
Climate change
-DISCRIMINATION
- SOME ANSWERS MAY
VARY
Answer Key
References

A. Book:

Almonte, Liza et.al. 2016, 2017. A Journey Through Anglo-American

Literature Learner’s Material. Araneta Avenue, Quezon City: Vibal
Group, Inc.

B. Website:

Miller, Ana. "Social Issues in World Literature".

https://study.com/academy/lesson/social-issues-in-world
literature.html. November 12, 2020

"The man with the hoe". https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/edwin-

markham/the-man-with-the-hoe. November 10, 2020

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